Zen, Sex and Losing Oneself

[Kristopher]

~

The Zen monk Ikkyu (1394-1481) continually maintained a cool, collected mind even as he surrendered himself to a life of love and lust with a blind woman named Shinjo. Although he appeared to be indulging in love and lust, he never gave himself up to it.

For this man who had chosen a life of loneliness, the opposite sex or sexual things did not exist. There was no male, there was no female. What existed were the two joined bodies engaged in the act of passion and Shinjo who was loved passionately.

This has me thinking of a new member of chat…

[Kristopher]

~

From my upcoming spiel on Zen and Aikido:

The way to rid ourselves of illness is to let go of attachments. In aikido this corresponds to not allowing ou ki to stop in any one place.

When a person reaches this state of nonattachment, he is approaching the level of master. In the Setsuninto, Munenori described this state as follows:

"Experts of various arts are not considered to be masters if they are attached to their disciplines. An unpolished jewl will accumulate dust; a fully polished jewel will not become dirty even if immersed in mud."